Some taking advantage of financial aid

Social service and voluntary welfare organisations have been doing an excellent job in helping the needy and truly vulnerable.

However, there are some young people who take advantage of the financial assistance and free or subsidised services, seeing these as entitlements.

In the course of my work as a job placement officer, I have come across several of these supposedly unemployed people, who are well dressed and have expensive smartphones and iPads. They have trendy haircuts and artistic tattoos, and can speak eloquently. But they seem to find it a struggle to get up and go to work every day.

Some have been chased out of their homes by their parents or in-laws because they have been economically inactive for some time. Others have left their children with their retiree parents, whose meagre savings are insufficient to feed their grandchildren.

Several work part-time, preferring jobs that pay them daily so as to have work flexibility, or to avoid paying maintenance allowances to their former spouses.

They are confining not only themselves to the poverty trap, but also their children.

The various self-help groups, voluntary welfare organisations and social workers should work together to persuade or pressure these young people to return to the workforce and live out their lives meaningfully.

John Kok

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